101.
A ‘BLUE AND WHITE’ PUZZLE JUG AND COVER
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century
21,8 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3274.
Standing on a splayed circular foot, the globular body rising to a cylindrical neck with four vertical openings alternating with four groups of four pierced holes, a serpentine tubular handle starting from the lower section of the body and partially encircling the upper zone of the neck ending with a dragon head as a spout, the domed cover with a cylindrical finial, the body decorated with floral compositions inside four rectangular panels, the foot with two bands of diagonal lines and a frieze with a stylized scroll.
This kind of ‘surprise’ jug – whose main feature is the fact that the liquid doesn’t come out from the openings because it previously flows through the long handle – was produced in many European countries already from the early fourteenth century, and it was very popular as an amusing object during the dinner parties. The oldest known example is the ‘Exeter Puzzle Jug’, realized in Saintonge, Western France, to about 1300, discovered in 1899 and now in the Royal Albert Museum in Exeter (inv. 1899/10/1).
Puzzle jugs of shape similar to this were already produced in Germany in the early seventeenth century: see as example the piece in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, made in Westerwald region to about 1620 (inv. 2014-102-1). Chinese ceramists began to produce this kind of items from the Kangxi period, mainly destined to Holland where the Delft kilns had this model in their repertory from mid seventeenth century, registered in the inventories of those years as suijgkan, “suction-jug”.
